China tempers the U.S. hints the sides are peparing for "last round" of trade talks - South China Morning Post reports

Messages from the U.S. side that next week’s talks in Washington with China could be the last round in efforts to end the year-long trade war have been tempered by Beijing’s negotiators, who have suggested the tactic to “generate pressure” should not be taken “seriously”, the South China Morning Post reports.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Thursday that the U.S. President Donald Trump and the Chinese President Xi Jinping will decide after the negotiations between delegates next week whether to meet to finish the trade deal, hinting that this will be the last round of talks before a possible summit between the two leaders.

“Certainly I think that at the end of the day you’re gonna have to see the two leaders sit down and finalise some of the details of any major trade deal like this,” she said.

However, Taoran Notes, a social media account used by Beijing to release trade talk information and to manage domestic expectations, said the hints from the U.S. side that next week’s 11th round of talks is a deadline are merely a trick “to increase tensions and generate pressure on the other side”.

“It’s the same tactic as the US threatening to raise tariffs, it is merely smoke and mirrors to exert extreme pressure [on China],” the post said. “You don’t have to take it seriously.”

It also warned that there is still a possibility that the two sides will end up in “an unhappy departure” if one side wants the other to make compromises and neglects “fairness in negotiation”.